Book review: C.J. Box's Badlands - enthralling thriller

The new Wild West, in which a hamlet becomes a boomtown because of its oil-rich fields, makes a sturdy background for C.J. Box's intriguing new standalone novel.

Taking another break from his bestselling series about Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett, Box delivers an enthralling thriller in , the story of a once-quiet area unready for its rapid growth.

Cassandra "Cassie" Dewell, last seen in Box's terrifying , arrives in this new frontier anxious to start as chief investigator for Jon Kirkbride, sheriff of Bakken County. But the progress that assures Cassie her new high-paying job comes with problems.

A few years ago, Grimstad was an economically depressed North Dakota town "dying a slow death", its most notable feature the below-zero winters. But a burgeoning oil industry has brought in a few thousand workers, who have too much money and idle time on their hands. Grimstad's unbridled population growth also means that crime and the drug trade are out of control. The town's infrastructure, from housing to restaurants to law enforcement, is woefully unprepared.

As Cassie looks into murders related to rival gangs and corruption within the sheriff's department, 12-year-old Kyle Westergaard unwittingly steps into the middle of the drug war when he comes across a duffel bag filled with drugs and money.